The last article about green spas emphasized on benefits and advantages that go hand in hand with sustainable business practices. Increasing eco-efficiency, creating a positive image and motivating as well as attracting employees are just some worth mentioning.
However, there are also challenges that need to be considered in the course of greening a spa.
Probably the most negative effect that scares off many developers of building a sustainable spa is the high costs of implementing environmentally friendly measures. Overall development costs for a green spa increase by 8 to 20 percent in comparison to an ordinary spa. However, they typically pay off and provide savings within one or two years.
Furthermore, large chains or operators may have more possibilities for immediately implementing a sustainability program. Meanwhile, smaller companies are often lacking adequate resources to create and implement environmental friendly measures at a short notice.
Green spas may face the problem of turning customers away through too much, too expensive or too little sustainable programs. Moreover, environmentally friendly technologies may not deliver the endless choices involving speed, change, fashion, variety and luxury the affluent and globalized middle class is expecting nowadays.
Another problem the green spa industry is facing is that some spas categorize themselves as sustainable, solely for marketing purposes in order to attract guests. Wrong statements in the media can have a negative effect on the whole industry and cause trust issues and doubt of credibility on the consumer side. This phenomenon is called “green washing.”
Besides, different metrics, which claim to measure sustainability, exist. But sustainable and eco-friendly initiatives may be particularly difficult to measure because they often affect society and people at a macro level, and their organizational implications are vague.
Many standards and measurement systems such as Green Globe, Essential Spa Standards, Green Spa Code and EC3 Global exist to support managers in measuring their sustainability. Nevertheless, this wide range of options must not consequently be a good solution.
There is a need for one measurement and certification system that combines the existing ones to signal commitment to sustainability and identify areas that need improvement.
A further challenge green spas are facing is that spas generally are defined as places devoted to overall well-being and the renewal of body, spirit and mind. In other words, going to a spa brings a lot of health benefits like stress relief, mental balancing, improvement of blood circulation and stimulation of the immune system.
Consequently, people do not necessarily have to visit a green spa in order to get healthier because they can also benefit from going to an ordinary spa.
An additional pitfall can be identified concerning green spa treatments being more effective and healthier to the skin. Stiftung Warentest, a German organization that investigates products, states that the effect of natural skin care products can be the same as of ordinary products.
However, they also found natural skin care products that did not bring a sufficient effect to consumers’ skin. Moreover, the organization found out that natural skin care products are more likely to contain germs and consequently often cause skin irritations. Finally, ingredients of natural skin care products like essential oils, chamomile and tea tree oil are known to possibly cause allergic reactions.
The aim of this article was to give you an idea about how difficult and challenging it can be to green a spa. It is crucial to not only focus on benefits and positive effects of greening activities but also to face critical facts and problems this phenomenon has to deal with. Finally, everybody has to decide on his or her own in how far greening activities will be incorporated into the spa.
